It has been more than a week since the kick-off but it is never too late to share impressions from the event.

In sum, it was a great one. As usual @Jesus del Valle has managed to put a strong line up together plus get some of the smartest heads at Bayer to embrace one startup each. You could feel that together with few other establishments Bayer really moves things here in Berlin. And its serious intentions were underlined with an opening speech from Dieter Weinand, CEO of Bayer Pharma AG.

The pitches of the new batch of Grants4Apps startups offered an enjoyable mix of industry insights, entertaining gigs and prototype showcases. The lucky 5 in this batch are:

• Vitameter – Waterloo, Canada –  vitameter.org
• MediKeep – Tallinn, Estonia – medikeep.eu
• Sendinaden – Shanghai, China – sendinaden.com
• Serona – San Francisco, USA –  serona.co
• Viomedo – Berlin, Germany – viomedo.de

I was particularly happy to see Alexander Puschilov on stage presenting his startup Viomedo. Our acquaintance with Alex goes back in time when we worked together on a food marketplace for Rocket Internet. Super glad to see my colleagues starting their own ventures.

One real highlight for me was the open mic session where newcomer startups could pitch their ideas.Well, some were struggling a bit for attention but in any case a good starting ground for the future batch of entrepreneurs in Berlin.

If you enjoy these short reads please subscribe for my blog updates.

Have a good weekend!